Scottish nationalism has a number of advantages. It
can tap into feelings of Scottish patriotism. It can use familiar stories from
Scottish history. It can give people who are not successful in life the idea that
they only have to vote for Scottish independence to gain a better job or higher
benefits. But Scottish nationalism in general and the SNP in particular has a
fatal flaw that continually undermines it. It must always blame someone else
for its own failure.
Success in life as well as politics depends on taking
responsibility for your own actions. It requires us to be honest with ourselves
about our strengths and our weaknesses. This is why you should never give a
child a reason to fail. If you tell him that he is failing because of prejudice,
he will embrace that reason and fail. If you tell him he is failing because of
illness or disability he will not need to overcome his disadvantages because he
will have an excuse for his failure.
Scottish nationalism is grounded in grievance.
Everything is either England’s fault, Westminster’s fault or the British state’s
fault. It’s never Scottish nationalism’s fault. It’s never Scotland’s or
Holyrood’s failure to persuade enough Scots to vote for Scottish independence.
For this reason, it’s never honest with itself about its success and its
failure.
This has become particularly clear in the past week
with peripheral and aging Scottish nationalists beginning to realise that its
unlikely that they will see Scottish independence in their lifetime descending
into paranoia.
But it goes much further back. Conspiracy theories,
grievance and blaming someone else for our own faults has become a key part of
the Scottish nationalist character.
The Act of Union 1707
This is presented by Scottish nationalism as a betrayal.
Such a parcel of rogues bought and sold Scotland for English gold. But in a
European context this is nonsense. The merger of kingdoms was the norm.
Kingdoms that merged usually merged politically too. James VI could have
refused the English crown, but once he accepted it there was always a good
chance that Scottish independence and English independence would be lost. It
wasn’t inevitable, but why blame the English? They weren’t that keen on having
a Scottish King and many weren’t that keen on merging with Scotland either.
The Clearances
These took place because of developments in
agriculture. Just as in other parts of Britain agricultural labourers were displaced
by enclosure and the development of technologies like the seed drill that made
many workers unnecessary. Sometimes it was Scottish landowners who cleared out
their tenants, sometimes it wasn’t. But the displacement of people and their
moving to colonies was a European wide phenomenon. More people in England were
displaced than in Scotland, moving from small villages to cities to work in
factories. This was called industrialisation. But there were no “Clearances” in
England, and no one is blamed for it today.
Decline of Gaelic
In the Iron Age large parts of Europe spoke Celtic
languages including all of Britain and France and parts of Spain and Germany. But
whether by ill fortune or some inherent character of Celtic languages, the only
place where they are widely spoken today is in Wales. Mass migration from Angles,
Saxons, Romans and Normans supplanted Celtic speakers. In Scotland Gaelic was
undermined for economic and religious reasons and by the spread of education.
But it was not English people who did this, it was Scots who saw Gaelic as an
impediment to Scottish unity and the dominance of Church of Scotland Presbyterianism.
It became advantageous for Gaelic speakers to learn English and so monolingual
Gaelic speakers became rarer, which accelerated decline. By the twentieth
century Gaelic speaking parents were choosing not to pass on the language. Whose
fault was that?
Tanks in George Square
In 1919 there was fear all over Europe of Bolshevism. There
were major post First World War conflicts between Greece and Turkey, the Soviet
Union and Poland which involved the deaths of large numbers of people. Spanish
flu killed 21 million people between 1919 and 1920. The Battle of George Square
led to the death of one policeman some months later due to injuries. There were
some tanks, but they were deployed on the orders of the Sherriff of Lanarkshire
and they arrived after the riot was over.
The McCrone Report
It was reported to the Government in 1974 that
It must be concluded
therefore that revenues and large balance of payments gains would indeed accrue
to a Scottish Government in the event of independence provided that steps were
taken either by carried interest or by taxation to secure the Government
'take'. Undoubtedly this would banish any anxieties the Government might have
had about its budgetary position or its balance of payments.
But so what? Natural resources belong to nation
states. It might equally well have been concluded that if the part of Norway
that juts into the North Sea was independent it would have advantages. But that
part of Norway does not own natural resources. They belong to the whole of
Norway. The “It’s Scotland’s oil” argument only works if Scotland is an
independent nation state, but you cannot use being an independent nation state
to justify becoming one. That is obviously circular reasoning. The truth is
that in 1974 there was little prospect of Scotland becoming independent. The
SNP won 30% of the vote in 1974, but this had declined to 17% by 1979. Scotland
was not independent when McCrone wrote his report and nor did we want to be.
The report was not secret. If it had been it would not have been discovered by
a freedom of information request in 2005.
Willie McRae
This SNP politician died in somewhat mysterious circumstances in 1985. Some Scottish nationalists allege that he was under MI5 surveillance and was murdered for his views. There are some oddities and unexplained issues, but why would the British state murder Willie McRae? The SNP in the 1983 General Election had 11.8% of the vote down 5.5%. It was no threat to anyone. McRae’s brother “Fergus McRae, a retired doctor, dismisses the conspiracy theories and urges acceptance of the official story.”
Secret oil fields
The problem with North Sea oil in 2014 was that it was
approaching the stage where it would be unviable economically and
environmentally. There may have been fields that oil companies thought worth
exploring. But these weren’t secret. How do you hide the North Sea? It’s just
that the companies didn’t know if they would be viable nor did anyone else. It
was instead the SNP that was wildly overoptimistic about the prospects of oil
in its 2013 White Paper. It turned out that oil was worth far less than Salmond
predicted. But there is no conspiracy theory about that.
Writing in ink
The idea that ballot boxes full of Yes votes would be
rubbed out overnight by people at the count only to be replaced with crosses in
the No box is perhaps the weirdest of all the SNP conspiracy theories. We knew
the result the next day. People at the counts would have had a variety of views.
Some would have voted Yes. Do you really suppose that no one would have noticed
this rubbing out?
The Vow
It is widely held amongst Scottish nationalists that “The
Vow” cost them the referendum and that the promises made in “The Vow” were not
fulfilled. I doubt that it made that much difference either way. But
politicians are allowed to make last minute promises. Voters can be swayed by
them or not. Anyway, the promise of “The Vow” was that the Scottish Parliament would
gain new powers. The Smith Commission was set up soon afterwards and the
Scottish Parliament did gain new powers. Later it gained still more.
The material change of circumstances
The SNP claimed that it had the right to a second
referendum because of Brexit. But there was nothing whatsoever in either the Edinburgh
Agreement or during the 2014 referendum campaign about requiring a second vote
if there were a material change of circumstances. Instead, both Salmond and
Sturgeon emphasised that the 2014 vote was once in a lifetime opportunity. The
SNP made up the concept of the material change of circumstances then claimed it
was betrayed because others disagreed.
The colony
If Scotland is a colony who are the colonisers. The
English, the Pakistanis or the Poles? Westminster can’t colonise Scotland. Westminster
is a building and a district of London. So, who are the colonisers? If it’s no
one, then Scotland can’t be a colony. If it’s the English, why isn’t it the
Pakistanis or the Poles?
MI5
Suddenly we are hearing about MI5 when support for the
SNP has fallen to 36%. But why would MI5 need to be involved when a simpler
explanation for the fall in SNP support is the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon,
the scandal about SNP finances and the arrest of senior SNP figures on
suspicion of criminal activity? To suppose that MI5 caused these senior SNP figures
to behave as they did is to turn Scots into puppets pulled by English strings.
Scottish Civil Servants
We now have the accusation that Scottish civil
servants can’t be trusted because they work for the British state. But these civil
servants were responsible for the White Paper in 2014 and have been largely
responsible for every Scottish Government briefing paper since. Are we to
believe that Scottish nationalists think that civil servants deliberately
produced a poor White Paper in 2013 and subsequent briefing papers that
undermined the cause of Scottish independence? But if that were the case why
did the SNP publish them? Instead, it has become clear that the only way to remain
in the Scottish civil service is to agree with the SNP. The idea that a Pro UK
person could have been Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff is preposterous.
As support for Scottish independence declines, we can
expect these and other conspiracy theories to be used to blame not Scottish nationalism
but always someone else for its failure to achieve Scottish independence. That
someone else is always the English. Another word like Westminster may be used,
but the meaning is the same.
But it wasn’t someone else’s fault. It was your fault.
When you had a referendum in 2014 you failed by 10% to convince Scots to vote
for independence. In the years since you have failed to increase support for
Scottish independence at all let alone increase it to the 60% level that might lead
to a British Government giving you another go. Now support for the SNP is down
to 36% because you mismanaged your party. Yet you are still mucking about with
wild ideas about a de facto referendum or a unilateral declaration of independence.
You don’t have the support for either.
If SNP seats fall by half at the General Election next
year it won’t be a generation, you will have to wait for your independence
referendum it will be your lifetime. Conspire away and blame someone else if it
makes you feel better, but it will be your fault and only your fault.
